Retirment Beethoven and a glass of Ribena

I was talking to a friend yesterday who was close to retiring.  She works in a decent paying job and as long as I have know her she has worked hours upon hours of overtime in the hope of retiring debt free and enjoying her grandchildren.  Like most American workers she was encouraged to put more and more money in to her private, retirement account, her 401K.  She has a defined benefit pension plan similar to mine where an employer promises a specified monthly benefit on retirement that is predetermined by a formula based on the our earnings over time, tenure of service and age.  

Defined benefit plans are, as the name implies, more clearly defined and favorable to the employee and the bosses'  have waged a war against them in favor of market oriented retirement plans that depend more on  investment returns; these plans they call defined contribution plans.  The reason for the massive propaganda campaign against public sector workers and our pensions, blaming us for the economic crisis and why capitalist society can't afford decent schools or medical care for its citizens, is to eliminate defined benefit plans which are in many cases actually enough to live on in retirement (heavens forbid you can live on a pension without having to go back to work in McDonalds at aged 70). 

Congress enacted the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 to protect workers in defined benefit pension plans. "Participants in such plans have greater financial security than they did prior to ERISA's existence. But the number of such plans has declined dramatically, and today they are outnumbered by more popular defined contribution plans, particularly 401(k) plans. This change raises a question of whether defined benefit plans could disappear entirely and has fueled a debate about what could be done to preserve such plans as a key element of America's retirement savings infrastructure."  (Employee Benefit Research Institute)

The corporations have been successful not only in driving down wages and eliminating benefits that took workers a century or more of struggle and sacrifice to win; they have savaged retirement security as well.  In 1985, 89% of the Fortune 100 offered a traditional defined benefit plan to new employees, compared with just 28% in 2007.  This has happened so easily in part due to the heads of organized Labor who have a policy of cooperation with the employers on order to maintain their competitiveness at the expense of workers' living standards.

My friend, after years of contributing to the success of the US economy and having two brothers serve in Vietnam with one dying of an Agent Orange induced cancer has had her retirement plans dashed as her wonderful vibrant private 401K plan has 60,000 less dollars in it.  The advisers always say to young workers that it's OK, the economy goes up and down.  That might work when your 20 but for older workers the so-called free market has destroyed years of hopes and dreams and if the capitalist offensive is not halted, younger workers have no chance of a decent retirement.

For many of the higher Labor officialdom this is not such an issue as being a paid Union official at this level is a pretty secure deal with many of them drawing two pensions. The "tighten your belt" advice is for us only.

After leaving my friend I stopped in this Chinese market to get some Ribena as it's hard to find in the US.  I was humming part of Beethoven's ninth symphony and was suprised as this young Chinese kid in the other isle with his mom began whistling it. 

"You know that piece do you? I asked.  He nodded his head in the affirmative.
So we both started humming it and then the checker who was a Latina started singing it in Spanish.

I happened to have my harmonica with me and pulled that out an played a few bars and by the time we had finished about half a dozen folks were applauding each other for the group participation.

I am not a worker fetishist but I feel most at home among my own people I have to say. It cheered me up no end.